“It’s dangerous and full of terrorists. If they stamp your passport you won’t be able to get into any other countries”.

This colleague is probably not alone in his views. 24-hour news and sensational media have made the world appear to be a more dangerous place than ever. Rarely does a week pass without a new bombing, mass shooting or lone terrorist incident occurring.

I tried to explain to my colleague that Israel usually stamps an insert slip (a piece of paper) instead of your passport. I also told him that it’s pretty safe.

“If anything, it’s safer than many parts of the UK”. I claimed, attempting to convince him that Fox News and the Daily Mail are on the whole melodramatic and mostly just wrong. He was not convinced.

Mark Twain wrote: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

This quote is as relevant now as it was in 1869.

The world is not the dangerous place that the media make it out to be. In fact, it has never been a safer, more prosperous time to be alive. Travel can broaden the mind and expose you to different ways of life. You can come home and question the way you do things. Evaluate what is important to you in your life.

Does travel broaden the mind?

It certainly can but it’s not a hard and fast guarantee. Many travellers will only ever stick to their comfort zone of packaged holidays in often trashy replicas of British towns. On the other end of the spectrum, some travellers will seek out realistic cultural experiences with the aim of “finding themselves” and end up coming home disappointed to find that the cultural pursuits they paid for were put on for the benefit of the tourist.

There is no right or wrong way when it comes to travelling. The mindset you depart with is more important than the activities you do and the attractions you visit. But whatever you do, don’t leave it too late.

Living an adventurous lifestyle can be simple. For me, it is to spend more time outdoors and step out of my comfort zone regularly. The ever growing amount of commercialism and unnecessary expense can make being an adventurer seem to be something only the elite can do. This not true.

This post will highlight the 4 mistakes aspiring adventurers often make so you don’t follow in their path.

1. You don’t need to quit your job and travel the world to be an adventurer

This piece of advice is probably the thing that annoys me the most with the adventure community. Becoming unemployed and travelling the world with little purpose does not make you an adventurer. I am all for travelling the world and completing human-powered expeditions. Taking a sabbatical, gap year or career break is also a great option for many people but it is not the only option.

There are countless accounts of people that live the city life, get bored, hate their job and find happiness and fulfilment from quitting their job and travelling the world. There is nothing wrong with doing this if you feel this is the correct path for you but you don’t NEED to do it to be an adventurer.

Do what you feel is right for you, not what the crowd are doing. If that means working in IT, banking or consultancy, and that brings value to your life go for it. If you utterly despise your job and want to quit so you can live a more fulfilling life, my advice is to plan ahead. Ask yourself:

What brings value to my life?

What skills do I have that are unique to me?

Where do I see myself in 5 years time?

What are the important things/people/places in my life?

What are my goals for the next 2 years?

Hopefully, these questions will bring answers that will help you to better plan a brighter and more meaningful future.

2. You don’t need a blog/website/book deal to be an adventurer

Rich advice from the dude with a blog but hear me out.

Some of the most adventurous people in the world have no website, blog or any other form of self-promotion. When I was trekking in Nepal earlier this year, the guides and porters would definitely be considered to be adventurous by any Western standards. These people would see themselves as fathers, providers and workers first.Guiding tourists in the mountains can be dangerous and hard work. The stuff book deals are made off. They are not too bothered about their Instagram feeds and if their journeys will make good stories. They do for enjoyment and to make a living.

Some of the most adventurous people on the planet have no interest in writing about it.

I started this blog because I want to tell stories and add value to other people’s lives. Writing on here is a hobby that doesn’t provide me with any notable income. I have no advertisements and the only money I have made is through the occasional affiliate links to Amazon products I genuinely use and recommend (we’re talking pennies).

Having an adventure website does not make me an adventurer. My mindset does.

3. It not about the gear

All the gear, no idea is a phrase often used in military circles. This phrase exists for a reason.

Gear is not as important as most people make out. A great example of how kit and equipment is not important is the adventure by the very funny George Mahood who cycled with his friend from Lands End to John o’ Groats with no money. They had to rely on the kindness of strangers to get from the most southern tip of the UK to the top. The book is an excellent read, very inspiring and will make you think twice when you are considering spending hundreds on that new down jacket. It’s a great example of how gear is not important for adventure.

4. London is not the only place to live as an adventurer

I’ve never quite understood why so many adventurous people choose to live in the most polluted, cluttered, congested and constrained place in the UK. As a Northerner, being in London is still a bit uncomfortable for me. The people in London are not as friendly as in the North, that is a fact. Trying to spark up a conversation with a stranger on public transport in London is only going to attract frowns and dismissal. In Yorkshire, you’re likely to struggle to escape the conversation once it has started.

I guess that many people will live in London due to the strong sense of community there. No other city can compare to the numbers of people that attend adventure events or festivals. I have enjoyed first hand the green spaces that London has to offer with a wild camp with the YesTribe. This recent video by Alastair Humphreys shows that there is plenty of green space in our Capital.

If you are planning to make a career from adventure, London is not the only option. I would much rather live on the doorstep of the Lake District, Snowdonia or the Highlands. London is the right place to live for many but do not feel that you have to live there because of the misconception that it is the only place to live in the world.

You can live an adventurous life anywhere.

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If you live in the UK the chances are that you live in a house with a secure door, walls and windows. Some people even have security cameras, guard dogs and alarms in the event of a stranger intruding on our personal space. Now imagine taking all of that away, walking to the top of a big hill, finding a river or settling in a small wood, unpacking your rucksack and getting into your sleeping bag to settle for the night. No walls to protect us. Free to feel the wind on your face and wake up to the sun as it rises.

For some people, this sounds like heaven. Escaping the confines of our normal home and connecting with nature. Being free. Others may find the prospect of letting go of security and safety too much to even consider.

It is completely rational to have some fears when considering wild camping for the first time. Especially if you have spent your entire life being protected by the bubble of your home. We are designed as humans to be alert when sleeping outside. Our ancestors before us had predators and rival tribes to contend with. Luckily, things have changed.

Face the fear head on

I wholeheartedly believe that the world is not a scary place. 24 hour news makes us feel like the world is more dangerous now than ever before but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

When starting out to wild camp for the first time, head to somewhere you know and feel comfortable with. It can be a local park or woods or even the farmer’s field down the road. If you are unsure what to take or how to pick a spot, check out my guide to wild camping. You could try and convince a friend to come along or join a local community with fellow adventure seekers.

If you are in the UK, particularly near London, the YesTribe is a great way to meet others and head out on wild-camps. After years of spending most of my nights under the stars on expeditions or military exercises, the YesTribe gave me the opportunity to spend a night wild camping with like-minded strangers that were future friends in waiting.

Feel the fear and do it anyway

The best way to face your fear of wild camping is to get out there and do it. You can adjust the level of comfort on your own individual needs. I often sleep with just a bivvy bag. It’s light, waterproof and nothing beats falling asleep facing the stars. If you feel that you need a tent, go for it. It’s better than not spending time outside at all. There are no hard rules in place. Wild camping is effectively just sleeping outside. It sounds really simple when you put it like that.

What if I get caught?

I’ve spent countless nights sleeping under the stars on random bits of land in the UK and across the world. Occasionally I have been rumbled or disturbed by people and even the occasional animal. At first, this can be scary but after a few encounters, the fear disappears. Animals will generally want to leave you alone. In the UK, your biggest worry is probably the occasional hedgehog. When wild camping in other parts of the world, you have different worries. When I’ve been on military exercises to Kenya, my Platoon had hyenas, snakes and lions to contend with. After experiencing that, sleeping in a wood in the Costwolds sounds like a walk in the park.

When I’ve been rumbled by a person whilst wild camping, my tactic is to be friendly and open. Don’t try to hide or do anything silly. I keep my torch close by and if somebody comes along, I find putting the light on and being friendly is the best way to be welcomed.

To avoid being rumbled, try to pick a spot out of sight of buildings and urban areas. I’ve only ever been rumbled when I’ve slept near towns and cities.

I feel it is our inherent right as humans to be able to sleep on wild land. Where reasonably possible, get the permission of the landowners but as long as you leave no trace and sleep away from buildings, you will be fine.

Remember, the noises you hear are just the local residents

You will hear squeaks, hoots, toots, clicks and other strange noises when wild camping (hopefully not lions roaring unless you are sleeping near Longleat). The vast majority of these noises are made by the local residents. Wild animals often come alive at night, especially vocally. These animals couldn’t care one bit about you. If your fear gets too much you have a few options.

Earplugs – Block out the noise for a great night. I wished I’d brought a pair with me in Nepal when the wild dogs were howling all night.

“Imagine there is a bank account that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to used during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course?

Each of us has such a bank, it’s name is time.

Every morning, it credits you 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off at a lost, whatever of this you failed to invest to a good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no drawing against “tomorrow”. You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success.

The clock is running. Make the most of today.”

Marc Levy, If Only It Were True

I have previously written about my need for balance in life. Too much of anything is bad. If I sit on my arse all day, staring at a computer screen in the office I will become tired, jaded and fed up. Equally, if I spent 3 months living out of a rucksack and wild camping every night I will also become tired, jaded and fed up.

It is much easier to fall into a trap of the first example – the sitting on your arse and not doing anything fun and exciting. Finding time for adventures can be tough. Life can get in the way. For many people, time is taken up doing things they don’t really want to do.

I often sit and read through social media feeds that appear to show people spending all of their time on adventures and doing cool and interesting stuff. There may be a very small minority that actually do this, but most adventure types have boring and normal stuff to do as well. The difference between them and the rest of the suckers who are sat at home watching reality TV is that the adventure types work hard to fit the adventures into the white space. To prioritise and plan.

The last 12 months of finding time for adventures

In the last 12 months, I have spent a total of about 12 weeks away on adventures. This includes some weekends but doesn’t include a week away on holiday with the wife to Croatia. Some of the adventures I have written about on this blog:

I’m pretty lucky that I’ve been able to spend about 5 of these weeks away as a member of organised expeditions with work. However, that leaves 7 of these weeks spent away during my own time – either on weekends or during my holiday entitlement. Again, I am lucky to have a generous holiday entitlement of 38 days (works out to just over 7 weeks as only Mon-Fri counts). This gives me space and time to be able to plan adventures but rarely for more than a week or so at a time.

The planning in advance is key. If you know when your time off is, protect this and let your intentions be known to your friends and family. This will give you time to research and save up some money for the adventure (or you could spend no money, like my busking adventure in Northern Ireland).

Talk to your friends and family

I’m also lucky to have an understanding wife that supports my desire to go away on adventures. She understands that it makes me happy and I usually come home in a good mood. She also gets some peace and quiet which is also a bonus.

If you have a partner, try planning a joint adventure. Even if it’s just for a night. My wife does not share my love for sleeping in farmers fields and washing in ice-cold rivers but she has come on a one night adventure with me this year. For her, this was a big deal.

Make it fun. Have a campfire (or in my case fail to light one and forever face the humiliation and shame of being a terrible fire-starter). Bring some nice food and even a bottle of wine. Just remember to take all your rubbish with you and leave no trace.

Make the most of your weekends

Weekends are a precious piece of time that I protect as much as I can. Don’t waste your time off doing boring and useless things such as sitting in front of the TV on a Sunday, nursing a hangover. You will regret the time you have wasted. I’ve been there and done it. I regret it and aim to make up for these lost hangover days.

Instead of spending the weekend getting drunk in the same old pub with the same old people, get out and have a weekend of adventure. Go and find the highest point within an hour of where you live and walk to the top. Make your way to the coast and have a wild camp on the beach (make sure you check the tide times). Get a group of your friends together and learn to stand up paddle board. The list is endless. Don’t waste your life going to a non-descript Weatherspoons and drinking overpriced flat lager every weekend. Don’t get me wrong. Every once in a while is fine but like I said at the beginning, too much of anything is bad.

I first travelled overseas when I was 16. Landing in Gibraltar was like entering a new but also familiar world. The road signs all looked the same. People were speaking English. There were even red post and phone boxes. But the landscape was like nothing I had ever seen in the UK. An ever-present rock loomed over the small peninsula that juts out into the bay. Monkeys clambered over the trees, snatching unsuspecting tourists cameras and sunglasses. The sky and sea were a deep blue, something I had only seen on TV.

I absolutely loved it.

My parents couldn’t afford to take us on fancy holidays when we were kids. We would spend our summer holidays on the North Sea coast, visiting the Yorkshire coastal towns of Bridlington, Scarbrough and Hornsea (with more of a brown, murky sea than the blue of Gibraltar). I have fond memories of these trips but as I got older, I longed for more. To see places that I had read about in my world atlas. As a kid, I would spend hours studying the different countries and their capitals. I longed to experience cultures, explore new lands and bring back memories that are impossible to get from staying in the UK.

Is there a ‘best’ way to travel?

Over the years I have travelled in many different guises. Here are some of the ways I have travelled:

Lads holidays to Magaluf and Aya Napa

Romantic beach getaways to Greece and Croatia

Cycling through Europe, wild camping and staying in hostels

Interrailing across Europe

Deployments with the British Army to hot and dusty places

Battlefield tours to Italy, France, Germany and Belgium

Army training exercises in Africa

Ski trips to the Alps

Diving trips in the Red Sea

Rugby tours to Spain, South Africa and the USA

Trekking the Himalayan mountains

There are countless different ways to travel. Most people automatically think travel=beach holiday. If you are only comfortable staying in 5-star hotels and sitting by a beach you are missing out. The world has so much more to offer. If this is all you can bring yourself to do, you might as well wrap yourself in bubble wrap and sit in a sauna. It is impossible to get a real feel for a country if all you do is stay in the tourist resort bubble.

Looking back to some of the trips I did at 18, I wouldn’t dream of going on most of them as a 28-year-old (such as spending a week with hoards of drunk British youths in resort towns like Magaluf). Over time your tastes change.

I have been lucky enough to experience many different types of travelling in the 12 years that have passed since my first overseas trip. The thought of spending a week by a beach fills me with dread and boredom. For others, this may sound like a dream.

The early years

Drunk in Croatia before joining the Army

At first, I travelled for the excitement of being somewhere new. As I turned 18, this quickly turned into an opportunity to practise my new favourite hobby – binge drinking. This was something I was pretty good at (or so I thought). Alcohol turned me into an outgoing character. The centre of the party. Booze removed all inhibitions. I became the best dancer in the room, the best singer and the funniest comedian (again, so I thought). Travelling and drinking became interlinked. I would choose where I would go based on where was a good place to party. Looking back, I overstepped the mark on many occasions.

Drinking in one city is very similar to drinking in any other. Over time, the nights merge and they become a hazy distant memory. Those party games in a hostel were fun once and maybe even on the second time but on the 10th time, they become tiring. As does spending the early hours of the morning hugging a toilet bowl in a communal hostel bathroom, ejecting the tequila shots and long island tea cocktails from the mouth it only entered a few hours before. I dread to think about how much money I have spent over the years on getting drunk on my travels.

Changing motivation

In 2016 with my friend Chris after getting my PADI open water diving certificate.

Without a doubt, my motivation to travel has changed. No longer do I look for the best place to party but now I seek the best places to trek, dive or ski. I still enjoy a drink but not in the same way as I did back then. Now the drinking is no longer the main event. It is an accompaniment to my journey.

Experiencing different cultures, learning new languages and spending time with local people is what makes travel so valuable.

During some of my early travels, I experienced little of this. But neither do the people that stay in 5-star hotel resorts. Both sides only get a glimpse of the country they are visiting. To truly make the most of travel is to experience other countries not as a tourist, but as a human being. This can be difficult if you are only staying somewhere for a week. This is why I now try to spend a good few weeks in a place so I can really absorb the history, culture and feeling of a new country.

Travelling is one of the most important aspects of my life. It has enriched my views and horizons in so many different ways. Looking back, I probably spent too much time partying in my early 20s. Lessons have been learnt and now I am looking forward to the next adventure. To travel without the need to get wasted and to set challenges.

So why do I travel?

My reasons for travelling have changed over the years. I used to travel to simply have a good time. Now my reasons are much deeper and more thought out than that. Of course, I still want to have a good time but I don’t mind if I have a tough time or a challenging time. In fact, I seek that more now than I did in my early 20’s.

I travel to learn. Not just about the place that I am visiting but to learn about myself. This is why travelling alone from time to time is important. I’ve found it to be an enlightening experience to spend an extended period of time alone whilst travelling. The person you are when you are alone is the real you. By knowing who you really are will make planning for the future clearer.

Experiencing how people in different cultures live adds a whole new perspective to how I choose to live my life. Realising that my possessions are not what brings me true joy. That money is a tool and not purely a means to happiness. Real happiness comes from social interactions, from old and new friends and family.

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“If I could turn back time…if I could find a way”.Cher 1989

Have you ever thought about what you would do differently if you were given the chance? What advice do you wish you had received when you were 18?

So where was I 10 years ago? Here I am in the middle with my good friends James and Chris, slugging orange VK’s, spending far too much time in the local bars and pubs in my home town of Beverley in East Yorkshire.

This time 10 years ago I was about to leave 6th form with three pretty poor A-level results. I received two E’s and a C. Back then these equated to 160 UCAS points. Not good enough to be considered for selection for my dream job as an Army Officer. I needed 180 points as a MINIMUM.

I also didn’t have enough UCAS points to go to my first choice University.

Damn it! Why didn’t I work harder!

The advice I would give a young 18-year-old Adam here looks pretty obvious.

Work harder at your studies. Don’t party so much and don’t be lazy.

This sounds like sound advice but would I have listened? Not a chance. I was having a great time!

From a very young age, I have always done what I enjoyed.

It started with the Air Cadets. From the age of 13, I fully emersed myself into life as a cadet. Countless weekends, drill nights and weeks away on camps were spent leading my fellow cadets.

At 17 years old in the Reserves. A mortarman from day one.

At 17 years old, whilst I was at 6th from, I joined the Army Reserves or the Territorial Army as it was known back then. Most weekends I was on a field exercise. Digging shell scrapes and getting no more than a couple of hours sleep. I took two weeks off from my studies (without letting the head of 6th form know) to go on the Combat Infantryman’s Course in Catterick. This would explain the poor grades. I also worked in a bar when I wasn’t playing soldiers and played a lot of rugby.

I generally did what made me happy. Isn’t that what life is about?

It’s not a coincidence that I have excelled at the things that I have enjoyed. When I’ve felt valued, useful and happy my performance increases.

So instead of giving the advice to work harder and not party so hard, better advice to 18-year-old Adam would be to:

Continue trying everything and do what you love

Many 18-year-olds have a lot of pressure to get the top grades and go onto a top class University. I had little of that pressure. My parents supported me but let me make my own choices. I was an adult after all.

Even though I had terrible A level results, I was adamant that I would be successful at Army Officer selection. The week before attending the selection in the sleepy town of Westbury in Wiltshire, I received the news that my first choice University had accepted me. I was a whole 120 UCAS points away from achieving the 280 points that Hull University required but for some strange reason, they wanted me to study there. They must have been short of applications in 2007!

With the wind in my sails from this good news, I headed down to the Army Officer Selection Board full of confidence and belief in my ability. I received a pass by the Army Officer Selection Board on the condition that I prove my academic ability by getting an honours degree.

To some people, getting the terrible A-level grades I did would be an absolute failure but I didn’t see it this way. I wasn’t particularly interested in the subjects I was studying. I selected them as the best of what was available as I had no other idea of what to do after school.

Looking back now, going through this experience has made this even clearer in my mind; that my talent, skills and ability are not defined by an exam grade. There are so many other skills that I feel I have developed over the years that are, in my opinion, more important than being able to recite statute laws for an A level law exam.

Success is not just grades and exam results

My friends in the first picture are also the type of people that do what they love.

James, the tall one on the left with stupid hair was a phenomenal rugby player and a biology whizz kid. So he focused mainly on his rugby and slightly on his biology. He now makes a living playing rugby in the English Premiership with Northampton Saints. He is still a phenomenal rugby player and was called up to the England Saxons team last summer.

Chris (on the right) absolutely lives for what he loves. He has worked multiple ski seasons in the Alps, travelled and worked in Australia and deployed on an Operational tour to Afghanistan in 2011. Chris scuba dives, parachutes and has even recently taken up cycle touring. He is now working for the London Ambulance service. Here his best qualities are best put to good use; his calmness under pressure, leadership, bravery and getting stuck in there where most would look away.

James, myself and Chris. 10 years on, we still have time for a drink. The orange VK’s are best avoided nowadays.

It has not been an intentional thought process but I realise that I have surrounded myself with many other people that live with the same values as me.

To live for today to enjoy tomorrow

So what advice would I give a younger Adam? None. Simple as that.

Sure, I’ve made mistakes. We all have. But from these mistakes, I have grown stronger as a person.

Success is individual to us all. For me, success is truly doing what I love, making a positive difference and impact to other people’s lives and ending the day knowing that you have accomplished something, no matter how small.

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